A few weeks ago, we came across an interesting infographic about email marketing, published by 99firms. We liked it so much that we want to make it available for you here!
Nowadays, there are more marketing channels than ever before in human history. Email is arguably the most powerful strategy for both B2B and B2C advertisers, even if it’s no more 1996, when we were always super excited to receive a new email ;-)!
Email marketing is a cost-effective solution, enabling you to reach potential customers at the place they come visit every day – their inbox.
Just sending email from time to time is not enough. Your potential customers receive dozens of emails every day. But only open a small part of them, and worse, engage with even fewer.
You need a strategy. And you need to learn the most efficient hacks, too. Enjoy the infographic!
For those who want to read the content instead of watching the infographic, here you go!
According to Sikich, 70% of digital marketers see email as the top medium for ROI and 62% of B2B marketers plan to continue to increase spending for email marketing. Let’s take a look of what’s work to increase leads.
Email Marketing Hack 1 – Subject line
- 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line (Source)
- Subject lines with only 3-4 words received the most responses (48%) (Source)
- Using emoji un subject line boosts open rates by 45% (Source)
- 47% of email recipients open email based on the subject line (Source)
- Email with personalized subject lines are 16% more likely to be opened (Source)
- Subject lines with movie titles and song lyrics have an average open rate of 26% (Source)
- Separating topics of your email can bring 74% more opens than trying to summarize them into a single sentence. (Source)
Case Study
- “Money Dashboard” boosted clicks by 228% by using a creative subject line. (Source)
- Obama’s e-mail fundraising team tested hundreds of subject lines at Obama’s 2012 Presidential campaign (the most successful was “Hey”). (Source)
- How to Craft Perfect Cold Email Subject Line (55 Examples) (Source)
Do’s
- Keep it short – 50 characters or less works best. 28-39 had the highest click rate in a study of 200M emails. Source
- Using the word “alert” in subject lines can increase opens by 61.8%. Source
Don’t
- Never “bait” users with inaccurate information or false promises. Source
- Avoid the words “miss” or “deals” in a subject line: they can decrease open rates by 4.8%. Source
Hack 2 – Pre-header Text
- Open rates increases by 30% when using email preheader. Source
- Optimizing preview text can impact open rates by up to 45%. Source
Case Study
Proper preheader planning resulted in 96% lift in revenue-per-email. source
Do’s
- Start with a headline, keep it short to ensure proper display across different devices.
Don’t
- Leave it empty, repeat yourself. source
Hack 3 – Sender Name
- 68% of Americans open their emails based on the “From” name they see. Source
- 64% of subscribers claim they are likely to read an email because of who it’s from. source Source
- Dedicated email address is the 4th most important trust factor for consumers. Source
- 42% of people around the world check out the sender name when deciding whether to open an email. Source
Case Study
“Mindberry” increased newsletter open rate by 57% after a tiny change to the sender name. Source
Do’s
- “From” name needs to be similar to your “From” email address. Source
Don’t
- No-reply address is known to decrease response rates and overall deliverability.
Hack 4 – Segmentation: Choosing the Right Targets
- Email segmentation gives better open rates (39%), revenue (24%), leads (24%), transactions (18%) and deliverability (24%). Source
- You will receive 15% less spam complaints with segmentation. Source
Case Study
- SHEFinds increased its open rates by 20% using list segmentation. Source
- SwayChic segmented email lists by buying habits and increased open rates by 40%. Source
Do’s
- Do segmentation of emails list by date (29.56% increase in open rates), interest (9.92% increase in open rates) and subscriber activity (10.44% increase in open rates). Source
Don’t
- Don’t send all of your customers the same emails. Source
- Don’t make email segmentation overly complicated and time-consuming. Source
Hack 5 – Personalization
- 94% of companies say that personalization is critical to current and future success. Source
- Personalized email marketing can increase a median ROI of 122%. Source
Case Study
- With a campaign including personalized emails Dormify saw a 92% increase in email revenue and conversion rate at almost 2 times Dormify’s average. Source
Do’s
- Great email personalization is to start with customer name or company name. Source
Don’t
- Don’t use inaccurate information; it reduces the open rate. source
Hack 6 – Automation & Triggering
- Companies using automated emails get 53% more conversion. Source
- Open rates for trigger emails are 95% higher than for traditional emails. Source
- Triggered emails drive 624% higher conversion responses. Source
Case Study
- Choxi generated an extra $3M in sales when they implemented behaviorally-triggered browse and cart abandonment email campaigns. Source
- Triggered emails helped grow ecommerce 53% for Zachys Wine & Liquor. Source
Do’s
- Send reminder (69% more orders), welcome (86% higher open rates), replenishment emails (open rates of 53.6%) and use holiday email marketing. Source Source Source Source
- Refresh your email list regularly. Email lists having +10% unknown user addresses get only 44% deliverability by ISPs. Source
Don’t
- Don’t use triggering if the email does not have to be delivered within a few seconds. Source
Hack 7 – Buttons & Call-to-Action
- Emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%. Source
- Performable found that red CTAs boosted their conversion rate by 21%. Source
- Emails that included social sharing had a 115% higher CTR. Source
- Two-step unsubscribe reduces the email unsubscribe rate by 19%. Source
Case Study
- Campaign Monitor got a 127% increase in email CTRs by adding a CTA button. source
- Whirlpool improved clicks by 42% just by reducing the CTA buttons from 4 to 1. Source
- Making CTAs look like buttons boosted clicks by 45% for CreateDebate. Source
Do’s
- Use valuable and actionable words such as “Download Now,” “Get Your Free Trial,” “Speak to an Expert,” or “Buy Now.”
Don’t
- Don’t be too wordy.
Hack 8 – Images
- 55% of consumers turn on the images in the emails that they receive. Source
- 65% of people prefer emails to contain mostly images rather than mostly text. Source
Case Study
Helzberg Diamonds saw a 26% increase in clicks by adding an arrow icon to their CTA buttons. Source
Do’s
- Emails with 3 or less images and approximately 20 lines of text result in the highest CTR.
Don’t
- Don’t make image files too large, as it can create significant spam and email deliverability issues.
Hack 9 – Video
- 51.9% of marketing experts worldwide name video as the type of content with the highest ROI. Source
- 64% of users are more likely to make a purchase online after watching a video. Source
- 59% of business executives prefer consuming your message via a video rather than written content. Source
- Video in email leads to a 200 – 300% increase in CTR. Source
Case Study
In 2010, Implix found that including a video in an introductory email increased the CTR by 96%. Source
Do’s
Use static image with play button, animated GIF and use the word “Video” in your subject line. Source
Don’t
Don’t embed a video in your email directly. Most big providers don’t support embedded video, so you risk to end up in the spam folder. Source
Hack 10 – Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
- Subject lines that create a sense of urgency boost open rates by 22% on average. Source
- Brits are 39% more likely to open an email if it helps to relieve the fear of missing out. Source
Case study:
Ticketmaster’s FOMO campaign resulted in 7.46% uplift in conversion rate. Source
Do’s
- Create scarcity and urgency using urgent words such as “Breaking” and “Order today” in your email campaign. Source
Don’t
- Don’t yell at your customer (IN ALL CAPS). Source
Hack 11 – Timing
- People are more likely to open your emails between 8PM and midnight. Source
- 61% of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. Source
- 15% would like to receive promotional emails every day. Source
Case Study
Email data from Harland Clarke shows that 26.9% of emails were sent on Wednesday (15.6% open rate), and 5.5% on Saturday (32.5% open rate). Source
Do’s
Don’t
- Don’t send emails inconsistently. Source
Hack 12 – Mobile Responsive
- 42% of opens occur on a mobile device. source
- In 2016 mobile opens rose to 56% while desktop opens maintained at 19%. Source
- 55% smartphone users have made at least one purchase after receiving a mobile promotional email. Source
- 1 of every 3 clicks within a email occurs on a mobile device. Source
- 70% of consumers delete emails that don’t render well on a mobile device. Source
Case Study
Responsive email design for mobile showed an overall 7.66% lift in CTOR for Crocs. Source
Mobile engagement had an 8.82% lift for the responsive mobile version over desktop version for Crocs. Source
Do’s
Optimize the size of your images for a faster download, test your emails across different devices and browsers. Source
Don’t
Don’t include a downloadable resources. Downloading large .pdf files can jam up mobile devices and bring the interaction to a screeching halt. Source
Hack 13 – Email Content
- Emails written at a 3rd grade reading level are 36% more likely to get a reply. Source
- The best email length is between 50-125 words, all of which yielded response rates above 50%. Source
Case Study
Boomerang study showed that slightly to moderately positive or negative emails elicited 10-15% more responses than emails that were completely neutral. Source
Do’s
- Ask your customers. Emails with 1-3 questions are 50% likelier to get replies. Source
Don’t
- Don’t focus on the product only, don’t forget about the customer. Source
Hack 14 – Email Formatting
- A plain text emails has a 25% higher open rate than HTML. Source
- More than 60% of email clients block images by default. Source
Case Study
Hubspot experiment showed the plain-text to have 21% higher CTR and 51% more clicks against HTML template with images. Source
Do’s
- Use a short plain text note coming from a real person on your team. Source
- Use at least one image inside of each email. Source
Don’t
Don’t use only images. Source
Fun Facts & Stats
Top subject line keywords by open rate in percentage Source
- Upgrade 65.68%
- Just 64.76%
- Content 59.05%
- Go 55.84%
- Wonderful 55.10%
Top 5 average marketing email open rates in USA in 2016, by industry Source
- Pet and animal services 22.1%
- Architecture and construction 19.9%
- IT services 18.8%
- Entertainment 18.3%
- Food, beverage and agriculture 18.3%
Time of checking emails by complementary activity in USA in 2016 Source
- Watching TV 69%
- Bed 57%
- Vacation 79%
